CV: Technical Officer - System and Payload Engineering

1. Personal Information

Sex Male| Date of birth15/10/1983  | City  Jesi| Country Italy 

Nationality Italian

Marital Status Single

2.Main Professional Qualifications

Position Held: Payload Engineer (Consultant) at ESA/ESTEC    Period:Nov. 2008-Present

2.1 Telecom Payloads:

• Five years’ experience as Technical Manager of European Space Agency (ESA) R&D Projects in the field of Telecommunication Satellite Payload Systems and Equipment involving all the major European Partners (Manufacturers, Satellite Operators, National Space Agencies and Universities);
• ‘Technical Officer’ (acting) of ESA ‘Technology Research Programme’ (TRP) and ‘Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems’ (ARTES) activities, including, among the others:

§  ARTES 5.1 activity: “Payload On-Board Self Calibration Techniques”. The goal is the definition of an efficient end-to-end self-calibration system for Ku and Ka-band telecom payloads;

§  TRP activity: “On-Board Processor for Dual Polarization Mobile Payloads”. The aim is to assess the overall performance of an on-board processor for dual polarization mobile payloads;

§  TRP activity: “Lossless Beam-Forming Networks (BFNs) for Overlapped Sub-Array Antennas”. The aim is to design, manufacture and test a BFN breadboard for future multibeam telecom satellites;

§  TRP activity: “Optimised DSP building blocks for On-Board Processing” The objective is to analyse efficient algorithms, architectures and design/optimization techniques for Digital Signal Processing building blocks to be employed in next generation On-Board Processors.

• ‘‘Technical Expert’ supporting directly the Technical Officer in driving, monitoring and controlling ESA ARTES activities, including, among the others:

§  ARTES 1 activity: “Approaching the Terabit/s Satellite: A System Study”. The main objectives are to assess the introduction of disruptive technologies for the space segment within the 2020 time horizon to meet future user needs and derive a roadmap for the introduction of the proposed technology. Two parallel contracts have been placed with two European Consortia;

§  ARTES 1 activity: “Next Generation Mobile Satellite Systems”. The activity focuses on the definition and preliminary design of an L-band MSS targeting the 2018 timeframe and a Ka-band MSS targeting the 2025 timeframe. Two parallel contracts have been placed with two European Consortia;

§  ARTES 5.1 activity: “Integrated Receiver Front-End for Multi-Beam Ka-Band Missions”. The objective is the design, manufacture and test of a compact Ka-band receiver front-end EM.

• Engineering support to ESA Telecommunication Satellite Programs developed in cooperation with major European satellite Manufacturers and Operators:

§  Technical support provided to ESA SmallGEO Programme for assessing the impact of equipment measured behaviour on the overall payload.

·       Key Member of ESA Working Groups aiming at the analysis of satellite broadband services trends and evolution and identification of future satellite systems technological requirements. In particular:

§  Member of Terabit/s Satellite Working Group. In charge of the definition of payload architectures and key technology needs for future telecom broadband satellites;

§  Member of Future Mobile Satellite Systems Working Group. Involved in the identification of payload architectures and technology needs for future MSS;

§  Member of Flexible Payload Working Group. Involved in the identification of payload architectures and equipment needs for future telecom satellites requiring flexible resources allocation;

§  Member of ViaSat-2 Working Group. Responsible for all payload-related technical aspects.

• Key Member (‘Expert’) of ESA Tender Evaluation Boards for evaluation of Technical and Management Proposals submitted by European Companies in response to ESA Invitation to Tender (ITT);
• Co-Inventor of an innovative lossless beam-forming network architecture based on overlapped sub-arrays for Direct Radiating Arrays and Array-Fed Reflectors;
• Co-Inventor of an innovative design technique for linear and planar omnidirectional arrays. Antennas characterized by wide scan areas are highly desirable in a broad range of applications including terrestrial broadcasting and spatial (or free-space) power combining;
• Co-Inventor of a new class of Polyphase Sequences (PAT Codes) for telecom applications.

·       

2.2 Radio Frequency Remote Sensing Instruments for Earth Observation:

·       ‘Technical Officer’ (acting) of ESA ‘Technology Research Programme’ (TRP) activities, including:

§  TRP activity: “Study of Multi-channel Ka-band SARs for moving target indication”. The objective is to design a satellite-based multi-channel Ka-band SAR optimized for moving target indication either for land or ocean applications. Ocean current measurement capability is also investigated.

·       ‘Technical Expert’ supporting directly the Technical Officer in driving, monitoring and controlling ESA TRP activities, Earth Observation Preparation Activities (EOPA) and Instrument Pre-Development (IPD) activities, including, among the others:

§  EOPA activity: “Study for the Utilisation of Future Telecom Satellites for Earth Observation”. The aim is to prove feasibility and perform a preliminary design of a Geosynchronous SAR as a hosted payload of a commercial telecom satellite;

§  EOPA activities related to the feasibility of a potential L-band bistatic SAR mission to be flown in tandem with SAOCOM satellites;

§  EOPA/IPD/TRP activities related to definition of mission requirements, feasibility study and instrument design for an ocean current measurement mission. This concept may be a potential Earth Explorer 9 candidate;

§  TRP activity: “Study into Ka-band SARs”. The objective is to design a satellite-based Ka-band SAR for civil security and environmental applications requiring high resolution topography estimation (high resolution Digital Elevation Models). Two parallel contracts placed with two European Consortia;

§  TRP activity: “Study of Ocean Currents with Multi-channel C-band Digital Beamforming SAR”. The activity focuses on the assessment of ocean current measurement capability of Sentinel-1 successors;

·       Key Member of ESA Ka-band System/Payload Working Group: Full responsible for trade-off and performance assessment of instrument baseline calibration techniques for high resolution interferometric SARs;

·       Developer of a Performance Model for trade-off and performance assessment of future SAR instrument concepts for ocean current measurement applications.

Position Held: RF and Antenna Engineer (Consultant) at Rheinmetall          Period:2007-2008

·       Design, Development and Test of high power ferrite switches;

·       Development of a Simulation Tool for the analysis of large slotted waveguide planar arrays.

Position Held: Antenna research Engineer at Univ.P.M.                                          Period:2005-2005

·       Responsible for a R&D project on phase synthesis of active arrays for telecom satellites and radars.

3. areas of specialisation and experience

3.1 General Skills:

• Relevant project management experience in all Project phases, from initial definition of Project requirements to the delivery of final products/results;
• Full Responsibility for the quality and on-time, on-cost delivery of Project outcomes/products;
• Contract negotiation (on both technical and management aspects);
• Expertise on Interaction, Coordination and Cooperation with European satellite key players in the fields of Telecommunications and Earth Observation ((i.e., Manufacturers, Operators, Universities and Space Agencies;
• Knowledge of ESA procedures and procurement processes.

3.2 Telecom Satellite Systems and Payloads:

• Analysis, modelling and performance assessment of advanced telecom payload architectures for broadband and broadcast fixed and mobile satellite services;
• Identification of technology needs and definition of technical requirements for future payload sub-systems, equipment and products;
• Identification of technology roadmaps for future payload sub-systems, equipment and techniques;
• Management of payload sub-systems and equipment development activities towards technology flight maturity;
• Relevant expertise on payload active and passive equipment (filters, LNAs, TWTAs, SSPAs, etc…);
• Calibration/equalization sub-systems and techniques for broadband and broadcast telecom payloads;
• Flexible payload equipment (flex-TWTAs, MPAs, reconfigurable filters, etc…) and techniques for enhancing resource allocation flexibility (in terms of power, bandwidth, routing, coverage, etc…) in broadband and broadcast satellite missions;
• Modelling, analysis and design of innovative beam-forming network architectures for telecom satellites. This includes analogue/digital BFNs, on-board/on-ground beam-forming, etc…;
• Analysis, design and measurement of microwave devices (filters, phase shifters, high power switches);
• Knowledge of passive, active and semi-active antenna concepts for broadband and broadcast telecom satellites;
• Phase and amplitude synthesis of active antenna arrays with emphasis on related payload complexity (mass/footprint/power consumption & dissipation/cost);
• Knowledge of techniques for computing the mutual coupling existing among radiators in order to prevent coverage nulls in multi-beam telecommunication applications;
• Knowledge of signal propagation impairments (e.g., depolarization, scintillation, attenuation, etc…) and methods for counteracting these effects (e.g., Fading Mitigation Techniques, Smart Gateway Diversity, etc…) with particular reference to their impact on payload complexity;
• Knowledge of main signal processing techniques applied to telecom applications;
• Knowledge of main features of air interface standards and techniques;
• Participation to concurrent system design of next generation Fixed and Mobile Satellite Services (FSS and MSS);
• Knowledge of basic features and technology trade-off of major satellite sub-systems (e.g., power generation sub-system, thermal control sub-system, propulsion sub-sytem, etc…);
• Knowledge of main features of broadband satcom market in terms of service trends and evolution;
• Understanding of satellite Operators key requirements and commercial needs.

3.3 Radio Frequency Remote Sensing Instruments for Earth Observation:

• Modelling, analysis, and performance assessment of SARs instrument concepts, including multi-channel SARs;
• Modelling, analysis and performance assessment of Interferometric SARs (InSARs);
• Analysis and performance assessment of calibration algorithms for InSARs;
• Algorithms and techniques for space-borne moving target indication applications (DPCA, STAP, etc…);
• Advanced processing techniques and concepts (e.g., MIMO) for next generation SARs;
• Principles of SAR and InSAR raw data processing;
• Understanding of key mission and instrument aspects and trade-offs for SAR/InSAR instruments;
• Understanding of main scientific and civil security application requirements for SAR and InSAR instruments;
• Basic principles of interaction between RF signals, the atmosphere and the ocean surface in Ku/Ka- bands.

3.4 EM Simulation Tools and Techniques:

• Excellent knowledge of antenna and microwave equipment modelling tools (HFSS, CST);
• Good knowledge of EM Simulation Techniques (FDTD, MoM).

3.5 Computer Science:

• Excellent knowledge of commercial software tools (MATLAB, Mathcad, etc..) and programming languages.

4. Employment history

5. Education